Mines by Susan Straight Author Report Essay

1. Summary and Response.A. congenital in riverbank, California, Susan Straight became an award winning regional author. Straight came from a simple beginning, a respective(a) family and no friends who were writers. Straight wrote her first taradiddle at the age of sixteen and wrote sports articles in junior high. As a junior in high school, she began writing ill-considered stories again. Straight does resembling to travel, but enjoys returning home as well. Straight makes no fracture in advocating the use of writing workshops, so that writers set about the opportunity to set forth their talent. Straight has been published in various national publications, covered novels for one-year-old readers as well and even a childrens book. Straight has authentic some(prenominal) literary awards for her work and is now a Professor at the University of California. Her short story Mines was included in Best American nobble Stories, 2003. The Golden Gopher, an opposite of Straights sh ort stories, received the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Straights last three novels argon Highwire Moon (2001), A Million Nightingales (2006) and Take One Candle airheaded a Room (2010). Straight has many essays Reckless (2007), El Ojo de agua toad (2007) and The Funk Festival at Los Angles Coliseum, Los Angles, May 26, 1979 to name a few. For her jr. readers Susan authored Bear E. Bear (1995) and The Friskative Dog (2007).B. Mines is a story about a mother whos also a corrections officer, try to forest either her children from becoming part of the uneducated youth prison culture. Cl artte is a strong, self-giving woman. She has no personal spirit, due to her distant husband in essence, she is a single mother. Clargontte has conflict with her husband, who seems to be fine with their children growing up to be what society expects. Clarette is trying as best she can to expand their options in their lives. Her pedigree at the Youth Authority takes a physical and randy toll on her. Because of the jobs nature, Clarette sees the delinquency of the youth, grasping why she should make unnecessary sacking and giving her children an alternative future. She sees the wards, as fools. Just as that they are misguided and immature. Her determination is proven after the fight at the Youth Authority, where she gets up and spits on the spot she was assaulted, returning to work. Nothing is slowly for her, but she just wont relegate up.C. I genuinely enjoyed reading Mines. At first I just approximation it was divergence to be about her job, this was just fine with me. withal though her job does play into the story, it is not just about that. Straights descriptions of the scenery, characters, emotions and social influences were beautifully done. Even upon the first reading I indentified with Clarette, since I am also a single mother and did work for a while as a corrections officer myself. It made me recall all the wasted lives I encountered on a daily basis and that s ome of them acted comparable it was no big deal. Although these were grown men, it seems like it is now just something that is socially accepted. The short story was a very easy read for me and one that I read several propagation with no effort. I felt that she was a decent human world being, caring, loving and rational. She, like most mothers, put her children ahead herself, giving up some of her life and that made her more human to me. I felt sorrow when she is injured in the fight at her job and pride when she spat on the cement before she goes bear inside. I also felt satisfaction, when she opened the classifieds to look for the upright.2. Research.A. There are three main points that I would like to cover, in the interview that I chose on Susan Straight. The title is simply, Birnbaum v. Susan Straight.* All of her fiction has been about how hatful from places like lah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Canada and Switzerland have come to a place like Riverside, California. Since he r fiction is regional, it helps usunderstand better just one part of our country, instead of trying to be so broad that we lose some things in detail. Susan travels to the places in her writings, to get the back-story, making sure that all is accurate and it appears that she enjoys it a lot. When Susan connected to writing A Million Nightingales, she states, I spent five eld and I read about a hundred books and historic documents and went to Louisiana twice with my neighbor, who is from east Texas (5).She uses things that are in court documents to help with historical reading as well. For example, slaves were neer taught to read or write, also they were never taught to read or write, also they were considered property. So for her, court documents are the instruction to go. I read a lot of court documents and I have to tell you I read things like estate sale documents from 1797On the right side of the document is listed the human property thats being sold and on the left the phy sical property and it goes on for several pages. On the right hand side you have all the slaves and the slaves precisely had first names. They couldnt have last names (6). Susan also states, The personal manner I know about my family by marriage-slave ancestry-is only if through all the stories everyone tells (6). It is amazing how she researches so much and incorporates that to make sure the story is correct. That does give the reader a more true understanding on what is going on in the setting, time period and characters minds.It does appear that she does also keep up with the social and political aspects of the time. Speaking about expectations set by society of her daughters and government mistreatment in response after a natural disaster, due to ethnicity. Susan communicates of the hurricane that destroyed New Orleans, New Orleans was 70 part African-American and it becomes much easier for the federal government-in my community, in the black community, this is common knowl edge, people say, Of course they dont urgency to rebuild New Orleans. I think what people in Louisiana feel, not just in New Orleans but outside the city as well, peculiarly south and in St. Bernard Parish, isthat rejection you feel when the federal government says, Well I dont know if its really worth it. Of course, if its your birthplace, you want to feel as if you are worth it (10). Leading me to carry through that there is still racial discrimination, even now, in politics as well as society.Susans daughters are described as readers of literature, diverse in the music that they enjoy and just like any other fine young lady. Susan is quoted speaking of her daughters as really smart also being beautiful, and thats frightening. Its frightening because a lot of times people still expect them to be dumb or want them to be dumb. Because they are beautiful light-skinned black women (4). There are no pure races, states Susan, which does make you think (4). Susan does give supporting information to prove her quote, simply by reminding the reader of Louisiana in the new 1700s. You had Swiss mercenary soldiers who had their own laws and rules. French settlers, French-Canadian trappers who didnteven speak the same French as the French settlers. African slaves from seven, eight, nine opposite nations who spoke Congo, Bambara. And then you had German settlers. And then Native Americans who had their own clear languagesAnd the truth is, if there is English and if there is French, if there is African it all melds to become this Creole language-what is it then, and what are we then? (7).While a school-age child at the University of Massachusetts, Susan did study with James Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin is known for his activism, in the civil rights movement, as well as his writing on African American life in the United States. When Susan got to the University of Massachusetts, she had been a sportswriter and editor, and Id only been writing fiction for a year. Mr. Baldwin w ould assist Susan with her stories, helping develop characters that she thought were minor and had her think on a larger scale. Susan says that Mr. Baldwin was immensely facilitatory the way he taught me to think about these larger questions Susan was unsure that Mr. Baldwin knew what he was talking about, but came to realize he was right. Susan also credits Jay Neugeboren, a professor for years at the University of Massachusetts, as the person who really taught me to line-edit. He taught me to go through my work and make it as perfect as it could be (15, 16).ReferencesStraight, Susan. Birnbaum v. Susan Straight. The Morning News. The Morning News, 02 Aug.2006. Web. 21 Jun. 2011.Straight, Susan. Interview by Dominique McCafferty. Riverside Public Library. Riverside PublicLibrary Riverside, CA. Spring 2005. Web. 06 Jun. 2011Straight, Susan. www.Susan Straight.com. www.Jwelches.com. n.d. Web. 30 Jun. 2011